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Abstract:
In vivo 17O MRS imaging (MRSI) approach at high/ultra-high field has been established for non-invasively mapping the cerebral metabolic rate of oxygen in small animals. However imaging of the cerebral blood flow (CBF) using the same 17O MR approach usually requires invasive procedures for introducing the NMR-visible H2-17O as exogenous tracer. In the previous study we have observed that the metabolic H2-17O water generated from a brief 17O2 gas inhalation, which was commonly used for the CMRO2 measurement, had a much slower washout (or decay) rate compared to that of H2-17O tracerm suggesting possible permeability restrictions in the mitochondrial and/or cellular membranes. In the present study, we found that the decay rate of the metabolic H2-17O is still closely related to cerebral perfusion and its change; and a linear relationship between CBF and H2-17O decay rate can be determined experimentally from combined CBF and CMRO2 measurements in rat brain under varied physiological or pathological conditions.
